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Possible third Covid wave unlikely to affect children, WHO-AIIMS survey reveals

The SARS-CoV-2 sero-positivity rate among children was high and were comparable to the adult population in the survey, which was conducted in five selected states with a total sample size of 10,000. Data of 4,500 participants were taken for the results of the time of midterm analysis from four states of India and more results are likely to come in the next two to three months.

Committee on energy efficiency, low carbon technologies to be set up: Power Minister

“A Committee/Group to be set up having members from all relevant Ministries for implementation of the Roadmap on Energy Efficiency and low carbon technologies,” he said.

The minister said a concerted push for renewables is already underway and a detailed action plan will be developed to identify potential areas. Singh directed to keep the focus on sectors with the highest emissions intensity such as Transport, MSMEs and Power plants.

 Suicide remains one of leading causes of death worldwide: WHOWHO

From job loss to financial stress and social isolation, the many risk factors triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic make suicide prevention “even more important now”, said the top WHO official.
Among young people aged 15-29, suicide was the fourth leading cause of death after road injury, tuberculosis and interpersonal violence, according to the study: Suicide worldwide in 2019.

Cooperation from insurance companies for road safety activities is negligible:Gadkari

”Around 1.5 lakh persons die due to road accidents (every year)… My internal target is before 2024, we will reduce deaths and accidents by 50 per cent,” the Road Transport and Highways Minister said.

Around 50 per cent of road accidents are due to road engineering problems, he pointed out.

U.S. Supreme Court rejects Republican challenge to Obamacare law

If Obamacare had been struck down, up to 20 million Americans stood to lose their medical insurance and insurers could have once again refused to cover people with pre-existing medical conditions. Obamacare expanded the Medicaid state-federal healthcare program and created marketplaces for private insurance.

The provision, called the “individual mandate,” required Americans to obtain health insurance or pay a financial penalty. It marked the third time the court has preserved Obamacare since its 2010 enactment. 

US govt to invest $3.2bn to develop pills to treat Covid

The new programme, coming on top of the $18 billion success story that resulted in effective vaccines in record time, will create platforms that will initially target coronaviruses, and then could be expanded to other viruses with pandemic potential – helping to better prepare the nation for future viral threats, the US department of health and human services announced on Thursday.

Reinsurers look at dumping coal from bulk-buy policies in green gambit

Five of the world’s six largest reinsurers – Swiss Re, Munich Re, Hannover Re, SCOR and Lloyd’s of London – have already scaled back bespoke coverage for coal projects. But only Swiss Re, in a statement in March, has said it will go further and tighten its treaty reinsurance stance.

A rail contractor to Adani Enterprises’ giant Australian coal project last month, for example, asked the Australian government for help to obtain insurance that it was not able to secure from the market.
“The first consequence is insurance is harder to get, the second consequence is it’s expensive, the third consequence is there are all sorts of caveats on it and at the extreme you might not be offered it”, said Paul Merrey, insurance partner at KPMG.

French chef seeks $1.9 million from Allianz for Covid-19 BI losses 

Tensions between French restaurant operators and insurers over such claims have failed to dissipate after a year of public fights and legal disputes. AXA, which was ordered to compensate some restaurants, offered a 300 million-euro settlement to its policyholders last week, seeking to appease clients.

Global COVID-19 death toll exceeds 4 mln

The top five countries by total number of deaths – the United States, Brazil, India, Russia and Mexico – represent about 50% of all deaths in the world, while Peru, Hungary, Bosnia, the Czech Republic and Gibraltar have the highest death rates when adjusted for population. Countries in Latin America are facing their worst outbreak since March, with 43 of every 100 infections in the world being reported in the region, according to a Reuters analysis

Amid pandemic, number of people forced to flee homes has risen, says U.N.

“In the year of COVID, in a year in which movement was practically impossible for most of us… 3 million more people have been forcibly displaced,” U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi told Reuters. Nearly 70% of those affected are from just five countries – Syria, Venezuela, Afghanistan, South Sudan and Myanmar – according to the annual report on forced displacement by the U.N. Refugee Agency UNHCR.

Delhi bans soaps, detergents not conforming to latest BIS parameters

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) had in January accepted recommendations of the Yamuna Monitoring Committee (YMC) which had suggested directing the Delhi government to issue orders “prohibiting sale, storage and transportation and marketing of detergents which do not conform to the revised BIS standards”.
The primary reason behind the formation of the toxic foam in the Yamuna is high phosphate content in the wastewater because of detergents used in dyeing industries, dhobi ghats and households, according to an official of the Central Pollution Control Board.